E-Verify is about culture, not jobs

ON IMMIGRATION

April Johnson and Jack Citrin

Published
7:20 pm PST, Sunday, December 2, 2012

In the ongoing battle over illegal immigration, one new tool is E-Verify, an electronic system maintained by the Department of Homeland Security that allows employers to easily check the legal status of employees or job applicants. The standard argument for E-Verify is economic - to cull illegal immigrants from the workforce to have more jobs for legal residents - but our research suggests the issue is about culture not money.

Only federal agencies legally are required to use E-Verify, but a number of states - including Nebraska, South Carolina and Alabama - are implementing their own laws. Some congressional Republicans have called for an E-Verify law covering all businesses and public agencies.

What's behind this push?

Such laws are more likely to be passed in states controlled by Republicans, although many businesses and farms - industries that rely on labor from illegal immigrants - are not always on board.

If E-Verify were aimed at creating jobs for Americans, it would be enacted most often in poor states with large immigrant populations, because illegal workers in those states would be taking jobs that otherwise would be filled by legal residents.

But that is not the case.

E-Verify laws tend to be passed in states where there has been a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants over a short period of time, regardless of economic concerns. Statistical analysis shows that the best predictor of whether an E-Verify law is passed is the rate of change and not the size of the foreign-born population.

Other factors - the size of the foreign-born population, the jobless rate or per capita income - aren't as reliable.

We conclude that a cultural threat, rather than immediate economic worry, motivates policies that make it harder to hire illegal immigrants.

The 2012 presidential campaign barely addressed the topic of illegal immigration, but it is sure to remain on the nation's agenda. President Obama has expressed concerns about E-Verify, noting that glitches in the system can wrongly reject a legal job candidate. But the pressure to adopt E-Verify more widely will remain, as will a strong opposition to this from a growing Latino population.

The program will be more effective and more widely supported, even among Latinos, if it is part of a comprehensive solution to the status of millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. Gallup polls show that only a minority of the public favors wholesale deportation and that a majority is willing to accept a path to citizenship under certain conditions. If there are fewer illegal workers to uncover, E-Verify's negative economic and symbolic consequences will be less contentious.

As President Obama and other leaders look for a grand bargain, it is important to remember that immigration is largely an emotional issue, not an economic one.